Don't look now, but it seems that the artists are climbing down from their ivory tower.

Looking ahead at the 2014-15 arts season in the Valley, we see the Phoenix Symphony teaming up with Phoenix International Raceway for a concert aimed at revving up NASCAR fans. Arizona Opera is putting a mariachi band onstage in a new Spanish-language work called "Cruzar la Cara de la Luna." And Scottsdale Contemporary Arts is taking on some of the hottest-button issues in the news with its "Covert Operations" exhibit.

Not to overstate things, of course. The symphony has always had its pops programming, and there's nothing snooty about a Broadway show. But there's no question that arts groups are looking to engage with a new generation of digitally savvy, culturally omnivorous Americans who are less and less interested in the traditional divide between "high" and "low" art.

And in that spirit, here are our picks for 20 shows that should be in the center of your cultural radar this fall.

Joseph Cannon as Shakespeare in last season's Southwest Shakespeare Company production of 'Equivocation.' To be performed at the Mesa Arts Center. Devon C. Adams/Handout

10/03: CHAOS THEORY 15 |Some folks complain that Phoenix's First Fridays art walks are more about the party than the art. This unofficial season kickoff is about both. 6-10 p.m. Legend City Studios, 521 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. Free. 602-321-2887, randyslack.com. Photo by: The Republic

11/19-12/28: ‘MARY POPPINS' | Phoenix Theatre, the state’s oldest performing-arts company and the Valley’s leading producer of musicals, brings to the life this classic tale about a magical nanny who helps to heal a grieving family. The stage musical, which premiered on the West End in London in 2004, draws on the original books by P.L. Travers, but the big draw is nostalgia for Disney’s 1964 film, featuring the sweet-and-catchy Sherman Brothers tunes “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” “A Spoonful of Sugar” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” which all enjoy ample reprises. Wednesday, Nov. 19, through Sunday, Dec. 28. Phoenix Theatre, 100 E. McDowell Road. $30-$75 (subject to demand pricing). 602-254-2151, phoenixtheatre.com. Photo by Disney

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"William Shagspeare" is strong-armed into writing a propaganda play about the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 in this provocative thriller by Bill Cain about art and politics. With a talented cast juggling multiple roles and anachronistic dialogue that drops a few f-bombs, Southwest Shakespeare's production is a remount of one of the most electrifying productions in Valley theater last season.

Nothing says glitz and glam like drag queens on Broadway, which is why tickets are going fast for the first national tour of this hit show with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and book by Harvey Fierstein. Based on a true story, it's about a failing British shoe factory that turns its fortunes around by stocking up on spike heels and leather. It won six Tony Awards in 2013, including for best musical, score and choreography.

It's a new era for the Phoenix Symphony as it introduces maestro Tito Muñoz, successor to popular music director Michael Christie. Born in Queens, N.Y., the 31-year-old conductor promises to explore non-traditional repertoire, but for his opening-night bash, he'll be joined by the Phoenix Boys Choir for Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana," featuring the majestic "O Fortuna" chorus familiar from movies, TV commercials and the New Age remix by Enigma. Also on the bill: Stravinsky's "Firebird" Suite.

West African myths and music propel this provocative portrait of two dissimilar brothers — a hardworking auto mechanic and a free-spirited ex-con — searching for the meaning of freedom in the Louisiana bayou. Written by 2013 MacArthur "genius" grant winner Tarell Alvin McCraney, it opens the season for Stray Cat Theatre, the alternative troupe that has scored hits ranging from the wrenching "columbinus" to the hilariously obscene "Chicks With D--ks."

Black Theatre Troupe opens its season with the final installment in August Wilson's monumental Pittsburgh Cycle, with 10 plays set in each decade of the 20th century, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Fences" and "The Piano Lesson." With sharply comic dialogue, it finds the latest denizens of the Hill District finally carving out a piece of the American dream of wealth and opportunity — and paying a spiritual price for it.

No ivory-tower navel-gazing here: Inspired by a notorious line from Donald Rumsfeld, this multidisciplinary art show confronts the thorny 21st-century realities of government secrecy and surveillance, terrorism, immigration and human trafficking. But no Edward Snowden stuff: We are assured the 13 international artists have used "legal, traditional research methods and resources — including the Freedom of Information Act, government archives and insider connections."

Some folks complain that Phoenix's First Fridays art walks are more about the party than the art. Well, this unofficial season kickoff is about both. Every fall, pop artist Randy Slack invites the top names from the downtown scene to contribute a single piece for his bash at Legend City Studios, then throws in wine, snacks and live music to facilitate schmoozing. It's a great survey of the diversity of work being created by Phoenix artists.

It wouldn't hurt to brush up on your Chekhov before taking in Arizona Theatre Company's season opener, but it's hardly necessary to enjoy this invitingly quirky farce from the deranged mind of Christopher Durang ("Beyond Therapy," "Betty's Summer Vacation"). Named best play at the 2013 Tony Awards, it's about a pair of gloomily erudite siblings whose life of monotonous seclusion is interrupted by the arrival of their movie-star sister and her latest boy toy. Single tickets on sale Monday, Aug. 25.

Ira Glass of public radio's "This American Life" explains his offbeat collaboration with choreographer Monica Bill Barnes: "There's something funny and intensely personal in her dances, with these moments of awkwardness or self-consciousness or striving that I find so relatable." This touring performance expands on a trio of dances created for an "American Life" variety show that was screened in movie theaters in 2012.

Featuring more than 40 cutting-edge ensembles and accessories, Phoenix Art Museum's exhibit explores how designers such as Ralph Rucci, Proenza Schouler, Anna Sui and Rodarte are rethinking fashion in light of 21st-century ethical concerns about the environment and labor rights.

Sax man Branford Marsalis, who played sideman to Jay Leno and fused jazz and hip-hop with the band Buckshot LeFonque, takes a walk on the classical side with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, playing new arrangements of selections by Bach, Telemann and Albinoni.

Childsplay, Tempe's acclaimed theater for young audiences, wowed audiences last year with its world-premiere adaptation of the youth novel by Kate DiCamillo, about a self-centered porcelain rabbit that learns the meaning of love ... and of loss. Folksy musical interludes and a shape-shifting set create an enchanting world that could come to life only in the theater.

Piano prodigy Emily Bear, who turns 13 on Aug. 30, began composing at age 3 and played Carnegie Hall at 9. She has recorded six CDs, including last year's "Diversity," inspired by classical, jazz and Latin music. She is joined by cellist Zuill Bailey, artistic director of El Paso Pro Musica, who's known for his chart-topping interpretation of the Bach Cello Suites.

The quintessential fairy-tale ballet has been parodied by the all-male Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo and even transformed into stop-motion animation using Barbie dolls. But expect no gimmicks from Ballet Arizona's acclaimed artistic director Ib Andersen, one of the last proteges of the legendary choreographer George Balanchine, but rather a blend of athletic power and emotive grace keenly attuned to Tchaikovsky's elegant score.

Dubbed "the world's first mariachi opera," this musical drama — aka "To Cross the Face of the Moon" — is about a family divided by the U.S.-Mexico border. With a Spanish libretto, it was commissioned by Houston Grand Opera from composer Jose "Pepe" Martinez, music director of Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan. That acclaimed ensemble, founded in 1897, will perform in Arizona Opera's season-opening production, which is sure to spark debate among purists over whether it's really an opera. Reviewing the piece for the Houston Chronicle in 2012, Steven Brown wrote that the music is not only "suave and melodious, but its almost unceasing glow reaches into the souls of the characters. ... Was 'Cruzar' an opera? That didn't matter at all."

No cutesy skeletons here: Phoenix Chorale maestro Charles Bruffy put his company on the international map with intricately nuanced interpretations of choral classics and contemporary compositions. In this concert, the Grammy-winning ensemble marks All Souls' Day by singing of grief and healing in 20th-century Requiem settings by Englishman Herbert Howells and France's Maurice Durufle. The program also features a world premiere by American composer J.A.C. Redford written in memory of the Phoenix Boys Choir's longtime artistic director, Harvey K. Smith, who died in 2012.

The quest to bring the arts to new audiences shifts into a surprising new gear as the Phoenix Symphony celebrates the 50th anniversary of Phoenix International Raceway with a concert dedicated to cars and motorsports. NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace will conduct the national anthem, and country singer Tom Wopat, of "The Dukes of Hazzard" fame, will perform with the orchestra. The program features a horn-tooting, engine-revving world-premiere overture commissioned from Larry Blank, a composer and arranger for Hollywood and Broadway, who also conducts the program.

Phoenix Theatre, the state's oldest performing-arts company and the Valley's leading producer of musicals, brings to the life this classic tale about a magical nanny who helps to heal a grieving family. The stage musical, which premiered on the West End in London in 2004, draws on the original books by P.L. Travers, but the big draw is nostalgia for Disney's 1964 film, featuring the sweet-and-catchy Sherman Brothers tunes "Chim Chim Cher-ee," "A Spoonful of Sugar" and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," which all enjoy ample reprises.

The acronym stands for Lei Dong Tian Xia, or "Thunder Rumbles Under Heaven." Founded in 2005, this wave-making company is China's first professional dance troupe that doesn't operate under the aegis of the Communist government. It will perform four pieces in Scottsdale, including Tibetan choreographer Sang Jijia's "Standing Before Darkness." Dance Magazine's evocative description: "An anxious tribe of chair-bound dancers skitter just above the surface of the floor, or so it seems, never appearing to land fully. Like drops of oil spurting above a hot surface, they slide, glide, and fly on and off the stark white chairs with lightning speed."

The last day of fall is the opening of this in-depth exhibit of art and historical artifacts that illuminate the role of sports in Native American cultures — from lacrosse, invented by the Iroquois, to modern obsessions such as basketball and rodeos.